


Moving On, Finding Together

by Desdimonda



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Found Family, Gen, Strangers to Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 09:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18989749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desdimonda/pseuds/Desdimonda
Summary: Obito. Kakashi and Rin are all taking the road they want to at last. Little do they know that all roads lead to each other - exactly where they’re meant to be.——Written for ‘Konoha High’ zine <3





	Moving On, Finding Together

**Past**

The ash twists off his cigarette as he draws in for the last time, a shower of dry snow covering his legs. Ripped threads expose ripped flesh, as grey as the smoke that pillows his head. He used to cover the scars a lot, but the act of hiding brought more attention than not. So now he doesn't care. Questions are answered with a curse, a finger, sometimes a punch if they ask too loudly. 

Obito tries for a last puff, but the light has already gone. He flicks the dead cigarette off the edge of the building, ember and remnant falling slowly. Slowly. 

There's no wind tonight. There's not much of anything tonight. Just the sky, the rooftop, the memories, and goodbye. 

Goodbye. It was already said. There wasn't many to hear it, and even less that he wanted to say it to. Obito wondered if that would change with the big bright lights of University. Would he find people he wanted to say goodbye to - or more so - never want to? 

And would they feel the same? 

He picks up a pebble from his stash and throws it at the opposite wall, the white stone bounce, bouncing back to his feet. 

Will he just fall, fall back to here, stumbling, a failure, right back to where he belongs? 

It had been hard enough to get the grades to get in and then for his scholarship. Uncle Madara had offered to pay full ride. Obito refused his blood money every time. He wanted to scrub away home, Uchiha, who he was, what he did, who, what,  _ who-  _

Blunt nails scratch the deep scars on his face. They itched a lot in the cold and he forgot his scarf. Had he packed it? Half of his life is packed away already in his three door Nissan. The other half won't fit. 

Madara had also offered to drive him the several hours to campus. Everyone tiptoed around him when it came to cars. Just because one had landed him in a coma and given him two lives’worth of scars. They loved to carefully omit ‘joyriding’; ‘drugs’; ‘reckless’. He was eighteen now. Juvie record expunged (Madara’s leaving ‘present’). License new. Car earned. Even if it was older than him. 

“Hey, Scarface,” calls Shisui as he kicks open the roof door, catching his breath. 

“Jigsaw.” Obito throws another pebble, watching it just fall to his feel again. “Or I’ll call you Sheep.”

“I can’t help being born with this mane, Freddy.” Shisui narrowly dodges a pebble to the face. “Watch it. I ran all the way across the road to find you. We’re celebrating your goodbye without you.”

Obito takes a long breath as he hears the roof door shut and steps rustle over the concrete. So he’s decided to stay. He throws another pebble. Harder. It bounces off and away, falling down to the street below. His party blares opposite, everyone probably already forgotten what it’s for and who. He doesn’t care. Two beers and as much cake as he could fit in a tissue, and he was gone, the music and lights his cloak.

“I’ve already said goodbye.” 

Shisui sits next to him and hands him a beer. “I haven’t.”

“Whatever.” He sips the cold beer and falls back against the water tank. 

“I admire you, y‘know. You used to be the worst of them- us. Now you’re alright.” 

The words make Obito pause, the beer still in his mouth mid sip. He weighs his words, chewing them over with doubt. Madara had been proud of him - of all the things he’d done in their name. But he’d just been a tool. Disposable. Shisui was a friend. No motive, no objective. Just, friend.

“Thanks. I’m pretty sure I’d disappointed the entire family by not taking crime 101 instead.”

Shisui laughs. “Oh boy you have. But that’s why I’m proud. Itachi too. You let kids see there’s another way- or a way out.”

Tipping his beer, he clinks it with Shisui’s as they share a smile. 

A way out. A way away. A way forward. 

Any way, but back.

* * *

 

**Present**

House four was the only other place that Kakashi really laughed after dad. The first one wasn’t the worst. The second was. He learned to fight back well by the end of his stay there. He didn’t stop learning, taking a weekend cash-in-hand to fund Jujitsu lessons.

Some of the bigger kids liked to test out what he’d learned in his lessons. And soon learned their lesson. He had control at Jujutsu. No one cared where he came from, who had died, where he lived, anything. It was both escape and stability. And no one was taking it away.

Not even foster father three when he found out, tattled out by one of the new kids. 

Everyone in that house used the word suicide too. No one ever just said died. You had to ‘remember where you came from’ there. But what if you wanted to just remember who you had become? 

House four was the best house. And the last. Kakashi wondered if this was the nature of life. Best comes last. You must wade through the hurt and hardships, until you reach your happiness. 

Figures.

He even had his own room for the last year here after sharing for most of his life. The privacy was odd at first. Not unpleasant, just odd. Someone had always been there. Breathing, talking, intruding, fighting. Something. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what his own company was like. He escaped a lot to it. Rooftops, riversides, fields for jujutsu practice, cafes with headphones, his book and the empty kitchen at 3am. But now it was just, here.

He’d been given a single room in the dorms at uni too - part of his underprivileged package. Another whole room, all to himself. 

He felt lost.

He’d only really applied for foster mum four - or Jin. He wanted to make her proud. She already was at his grades that he hadn’t even tried for, but had sailed to the top of the class. She cried at his Jujutsu gradings. And when his acceptance letter came through. He only applied to the university down the road. Finally, he’d found home again. He didn’t want to leave here - or her.

But he was eighteen next month, and that meant he had to. The system nudged you out when the clock struck midnight on adulthood. Bang. Bye.

Just one more day?

Jin had told him he was always welcome. For dinner, for weekends to visit -she’d roll out the camp bed in the laundry room. She’d always made time with him so he knew how to cook, use the household basics and be able to look after himself. Kakashi knew she did this with all her kids that came and went, but with him, it was always that little bit more.

Kakashi missed his dad his whole life. When he was alive he was so busy trying to provide for them both, working two jobs and just trying to exist that he didn’t have time to live. And he missed him when he was gone.

He didn’t want to miss anyone else. But he had to. 

Figures.

“Oh you forgot this,” says Tenzo as he drags out a ragged black hoodie, dog ears on the top. 

Kakashi smiles, flicking one of the ears. “Keep it. You stole it from me enough.”

Wary, Tenzo sits back on his heels, watching Kakashi as he zips up the last of his bags. All that’s left is tomorrow. “But- your dad-“

“Doesn’t fit me anymore. He’d be happy for you to have it.” Pushing off the floor, Kakashi sits on the edge of his bed, blanket strewn, pillows pushed to the side in favour of packed bags.

Tenzo puts on the hoodie as if he dons a ceremonial robe, one arm, another, and pulls up the hood, adorning the ears like a crown, his smile the jewels. He joins Kakashi. “I was listening in on Jin the other night-“

“What’s new.”

“You could have gone to any university in the world with your grades. Why not?”

Tenzo hadn’t been the first person to ask him. But Jin hadn't either. She already knew. She knew from the moment he received his first acceptance letter. 

In the corner in a box of paper recycling was the list of universities he’d shortlisted and applied to. Some of them, just to humour Jin and his teachers. But he’d thought about it. So he made a list. Pros, cons. The pro list for the most prestigious universities was extensive - and life changing. But the con list for them all just had one thing.

“They’re not here.”

* * *

 

**Future**

Rin thumbs the notes in her hand. It feels odd having this much cash in her hand. She usually pays for everything with her phone or card. But emptying her controlled bank account was the only way. Once her parents found out, they’d close it. Cut her off. Make sure she’d have to come back, bound to their leash again. She tried opening a separate account once. But this village was  _ tiny.  _

“How much for the Honda?” asks Rin, glancing back at the taxi that's still got its meter ticking, full of her stuff. 

The salesman looks at her for a moment, then at the cash, then at the taxi. “Ain’t you that Nohara girl?”

“Alright. New plan. How much for the car and to keep your mouth shut?” she asks with as much conviction as she’s got. She’s been on overdrive since she left, feigning an upset stomach so she could stay, as the rest of her family went out for their weekly ‘bonding’ lunch. She laughed, giddy, knowing she'd never have to go to another one of them again. 

It all went to plan. She’d packed in secret, hiding the bags in her wardrobe, under the bed, and one in the garage. Things slowly went missing from her room over the weeks, but she disguised it well. Rearranging, preparing, plastering over the gaps with superficial tat she was happy to be seeing the last of. When they left she called the taxi from the next town over, then packed her last bag. She placed the folded note on her folded sheets next to the open acceptance letter. 

 

_ Her dad slammed the second university letter she’d received on the heavy oak table, his damp palms leaving an impression. He’d just come back from the restaurant, mid shift. It was Rin’s shift tonight. She had school tomorrow and was exhausted, but no-one else around this table gave a shit about that.  _

_ “What’s this?” demanded her dad, fingering the headed letter again. _

_ “Can’t you read?” _

_ She heard her mother’s tight lipped sigh. _

_ “Cut the attitude. Since when have you been applying to university? We talked about this. You’re going to take over from you mum and I at the restaurant. Maki is looking forward to working with you.” _

_ Rin stood from the table, abrupt, the chair almost tipping to the floor. “I don’t  _ **_care_ ** _ about Maki and your damn restaurant. We didn’t talk. You told. There was no discussion.” _

_ “Sit back down.” He pushed her down by the shoulders roughly. “They rejected you anyway. What did you think applying - that you’d actually be good enough to get in?” _

_ Rin took her anger out on the letter, scrunching it in her hand, nails tearing through the paper. _

_ “Just because no-one else in this family knows what an education is, doesn’t mean I’m going to  _ **_settle_ ** _ for this shit hole _ **_._ ** _ ”  _

_ “Rin!” gasped her mother.  _

_ Her father said nothing, but she already knew the words he held back. A soundtrack to her life. A stitch on her skin, that turned to an itch she wanted to scratch away.  _

_ Away. _

 

They loved her, but did they like her? She felt more like an asset or an heir to a shoebox fortune than a child to uplift. So she uplifted herself. She was going to be more than a moulded tool, more than a surname, more than this village, more than they saw. She was going to be what _she_ saw _._

It took her fourth letter, but her first choice, to get accepted. And she cried herself to sleep that night, with joy.

Her only goodbye was to the cat, Biscuit. 

“Running away, huh?” the car salesman asks with a smirk, staring at the wad of cash in her hands. 

Rin raises a brow. “Running to, actually.”

“Oh yeah?” he scoffs. “To some boy?”

She looks at the number on the windscreen and back to her hands again, thumbing another two hundred on top of the price. “To my future.”

* * *

 

**Philosophy 101**

“Okay bag. Okay notebook. No, notebooks. Several.” Rin spreads the notebooks across the desktop, opening, then closing. “Pens. Pencils. Backups. I should sell the car now and get a laptop. But the car is  _ so  _ useful.” She looks behind, around, noticing she is only one of four so far. “Am I really early or does no-one like this class?”

One of the four is two seats to her right. Grey haired, slouched, feet on the chair in-front, and she’s not quite sure if he’s sleeping or not. A book sits in one hand, but it has nothing to do with philosophy. 

She leans closer, noticing the cover. A bare chested man, wrapped in the arms of another, his kilt torn in half.

“Oh.  _ Oh,”  _ chirps Rin as she realises what he’s reading. 

“It’s book two of three,” comes his soft, lazy voice as he tips down the book.

“I uh -“ Rin opens and closes her notebooks again. 

“Is that the Laird of Lust?” comes a loud voice from the row behind, a faint linger of smoke following his movements. “My aunt loved them. Read them until the pages fell out. They’re pretty good. I love the parallel of Hamish’s character development with the fall of his clan. So bittersweet.”

Marking the page, the grey haired man shifts in his seat, a small smile curving the tip of the thick scar that runs over his left eye, from brow, to lip. 

“I’m Obito.” He ruffles his jet black hair before he steps over the seat and sits between them both. “What happened to your eye?” 

“What happened to your entire face?” 

Rin raises a brow, peering at her new company.

Obito snorts a laugh, mimicking his companions pose, feet up on the chair in-front. The lecture hall has quickly filled up now, many voices quelling the silence. “Car crash. Coma and everything.”

Rin opens her notebook again. “Coma?! And you’re alive?” Quickly, she realises how silly her words sound, but it’s a little too late.

Obito makes a face, pulling out a pen from his pocket. “Uh yeah. What hick town are you from? Can’t be that bad I guess. You’re really cute.”

Kakashi snorts when he sees Rin’s face. 

“I’m a lesbian. I’m also Rin.”

Obito laughs, unravelling his scarf, the scars on his right side thick and protruding, extending down his neck and chest. “I’m bi. So we’re getting all this out in the first five minutes. Cool. Cool. And you are?” he asks, turning to the other with a sly smile.

“Kakashi,” he says lazily. 

“Any other scars?” asks Obito as a loud voice greets them from the front.

Kakashi turns away, but glances back with his reply. “Maybe.”

Rin rolls her eyes as she picks up a pen, ready to write. “Quiet. The lecturer’s talking.”

“Oh wow his hair is…. _ yellow, _ ” says Obito. “Professor Minato? More like Professor Canary.”

Kakashi smirks, staring at his blank notebook. Rin scowls as she tries to scribble down more notes. Obito just holds his pen.

“Hey. Hey Rin-“ whispers Obito as he leans in slowly.

“ _ What.” _

_ “ _ You’ve got like seven notebooks there. Could I borrow one, please. I forgot to bring one.”

“How - how do you forget a notebook?” she hisses, sliding one to Obito as he mouths a ‘thank you’.

“Can I borrow a pen?” chimes in Kakashi, leaning forward on a palm. “I’ll lend you Lassies in Lust.”

Rin just stares as she hurls him a pen, which he manages to catch, easily. “I’m so glad I sat here.”

“Me too,” says Obito with a wink before he turns back to Kakashi. “But Heather in Lassies. Her monologue during her death scene - I cried - sobbing.”

Twirling the pen in his fingers, Kakashi listens to Obito, occasionally scribbling something down that Minato says. “I felt Ellie’s character was a bit flat.”

Rin slams down her pen. “Will you two shut up. I’m trying to  _ learn philosophy .  _ Not hear about the inner character development of softcore lesbian porn.”

Obito blinks. Kakashi slumps down into his chair. The hall is silent. 

“I must say, I wouldn’t be offended if you did want to,” says Minato from the front to a silent lecture hall. 

Rin hadn’t realised quite how  _ loud  _ she had been. Loud enough for  _ everyone  _ to hear. 

They all, just laugh. 

  
  



End file.
